I can’t speak for the rest of KnC’s post, but this:
The good points then. Fuel efficient, only needed about 20 ish pax to start making a profit ..correct me if I'm wrong please, the fuel drip sticks and the anti-skid in the main u/c. That's it. The aircraft came late into the market and I understand the initial deliveries to BM / BA were heavily discounted simply to get a prominent name on the tail.
In terms of maintainability however, it was labour / time intensive, even on the line, and generally poor. The O2 bottle had to be removed to be replenished, the rear doors shoot bolts froze with regular monotony, engine oil replenishment was far from simple, and the flap track gearbox motor replenishment plug was 5/16 Whit !...the galley had no ovens, only bev makers, the vibrations in flight didn't appeal to many pax and sitting at the rear you could watch the horizontal stab bouncing away. The engine. Shoe horned in to the extent I understand BM had an early engine change when a tool was dropped into the bay and couldn't be accessed to retrieve. An engine change was not a quick job not helped by the oil cooler as anybody who has changed one would testify. There were also more than a few IFSD's you will recall.
is all very true.
I only drove the things, and as I said I didn’t find them too bad, but my goodness the engineers despaired. 4 different types of tool needed to work on them (imperial, metric, whitworth and one other who’s name escaped me).
A plastic hose to see what the hydraulic fluid level was, that was stained red as soon as you put fluid in it, rendering it nigh on impossible to tell.
A length of clutch cable to control the throttle position on the engine that couldn’t tolerate any moisture at all else it would freeze, jamming the throttle - conveniently routed around the most exposed (wettest) parts of the nacelle. Oh and a standby electric motor system for the throttle that just moved the same, frozen cable electrically rather than through the throttle levers.
De-Ice systems that would only work when there was no ice (frozen ejector valves maybe?)
The world’s most complicated large cargo door locking mechanism that would freeze if you faced north.
Oh, and an Rnav system that was incapable of flying any track between 330-030 degrees.
To pole around it was fine, and in a crosswind fantastic, as I’ve said. But to work on & live with? “Challenging, at times”.